The health of a nation lies in its cultural well-being. Education fosters culture. But the right kind of education must be imparted to children whereby they may absorb the strong points in their national culture and thereby blossom into integrated personalities with refined sensibilities and abiding love for the nation. This is no narrow nationalism that I speak of but the natural love that should
be there in the citizens of a country even as they broaden into citizens of the world in the final analysis. But, as Swami Vivekananda had once said,"Can a person who does not love his own mother, love someone else's mother?" And therein lies the worth and necessity of enlightened patriotism devoid of its fanatical elements that led to the Second World War. We ought to and must love our motherland. We are enjoying the fruits of freedom which we did not fight for in our individual capacities but we are the inheritors of the labour of love of our forefathers who lived and died for the political freedom of our beloved motherland. That freedom did not fall into our lap by a prior inertia or by a gracious gift of our erstwhile political masters but we had to sacrifice our blood and toil for it. Those that gave their all for making India free did not live to enjoy the fruits of freedom. And we who live today in the noonshine of liberty scarce pay our dues towards the maintenance of our national sovereignty. The reason is that we are largely unaware of the real history of our freedom struggle in all its phases and are fed only a fractional version of it which highlights only what is comfortable to the men in the seat of political power and never what is the whole story. The ordinary person can scarce research and learn, so our knowledge of the freedom struggle of India remains truncated just as our landmass was truncated at the point of our winning freedom. Patriotism springs from knowledge and never from ignorance of the facts of history maliciously pushed under the carpet to suit vested interests. 'The Right To Information Act' is a step in the right direction though for a nation grappling with its misrepresented history. Children of today, take this up as the project of your lives to rediscover India's true history that your children and grandchildren may come up in the sunshine of truth and not wallow in the mire of half-truths and untruths that today go in the name of the history of our freedom struggle. Your research will make your love for your country grow a thousand-fold and such love alone can shape the glorious destiny of this great nation about which Swami Vivekananda has prophesied and the fulfilment of which awaits your labour of love in turn as the sequel to that of your forefathers in winning India's freedom. Jai Hind!
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